Brussels has frozen research grants for Swiss universities worth hundreds of millions of euros in retaliation after Switzerland voted to cap the number of immigrants entering the country in a nationwide referendum.
The retaliatory move by the EU comes just one day after
Switzerland refused to sign a ‘freedom of movement’
agreement with Croatia, which would have given Croatians
unrestricted access to the Swiss employment market.
In addition to ejecting Switzerland from the so-called Horizon
2020, an 80-billion-euro ($109.5 billion) research and innovation
program that distributes funds over seven years (2014-2020),
Brussels has suspended Switzerland from the Erasmus student
exchange program, ATS news agency reported.
In 2011-12, 2,600 Swiss students took advantage of Erasmus, while
Switzerland played host to some 2,900 foreign students through
the EU-funded exchange program.
Erasmus has a 14.7-billion-euro budget through to the year 2020.
The Swiss government had hoped to create 8,000 new jobs through
the EU grant program, yet an increasing number of Swiss citizens
believe the trade-off in terms of higher immigration rates is not
worth it.
“Switzerland is on a slippery slope of isolating its students
and academics from the outside world,” Elizabeth Gehrke,
vice-chairwoman of the European Students’ Union (ESU), said in a
statement issued shortly after the referendum.
“This could have devastating effects that would be difficult
to reverse.”
Swiss fretful in face of open borders
On February 9, the majority of Swiss civilians – albeit by a
narrow margin of 50.3 percent – voted in favor of dramatically
limiting the number of immigrants from the EU, thus ceasing free
movement within the bloc that was established in 2002.
The referendum was a major success for Switzerland’s right-wing
Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which tapped into the national mood
by arguing that more EU citizens moved to the landlocked country
of 8 million people than had been initially anticipated, thus
putting a squeeze on the national budget.
The SVP wants to make it easier to deport foreigners from the
country if they don’t integrate, as well as deny foreigners
government services and benefits.
The voter turnout of 56 percent was reportedly the highest in
decades.
Swiss institutions of learning will feel the pinch from Brussels’
tit-for-tat retaliation: Lausanne’s Federal Institute of
Technology (EPFL) said it stands to lose 80 to 100 million francs
annually in research grants, while ETH, the Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich, could experience a similar slash in
funding.
Immigration caps: Wave of the future?
Switzerland’s controversial move to limit the number of
immigrants says a lot about the increasing anxiety about
immigration across Europe.
Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party
(UKIP), called the results of the Swiss referendum “wonderful
news.”
“A wise and strong Switzerland has stood up to the bullying
and threats of the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels.”
Meanwhile, Austria’s far-right FPO party said Austria would vote
accordingly if given the choice, while the France’s National
Front praised Switzerland’s “lucidity.”
There’s been no shortage of handwringing over multiculturalism in
general and the free movement of citizens in particular inside
the 28-member union.
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s anti-immigration
National Front party, is gaining followers among mainstream
voters, according to a poll results released this week by
TNS-Sofres.
Forty-six percent of individuals polled said Le Pen is “the
face of patriotic conservatives, with traditional values,”
while 43 percent said she leads the “nationalistic, xenophobic
extreme right,” the survey showed.
Analysts fear that with tiny Switzerland leading the way in the
push to limit the freedom of movement of immigrants inside of the
European Union, anti-immigration parties may gain a yet another
boost in popularity.